Verdict expected today in Toronto pastor's gross indecency trial

Hawkes, a high-profile rights activist who officiated at former NDP leader Jack Layton's state funeral in 2011, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The charges stem from events in the mid-1970s, when Hawkes was a teacher in his mid-20s in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley.

The trial has heard emotional testimony from a middle-age man who said Hawkes led him down a hallway naked during a drunken get-together at his trailer and forced oral sex on him in a bedroom when he was about 16 years old. (more...)